News & Events

Matching students and companies in Finland

Nineteen second year students of the EIT ICT Labs Master School started their studies at Aalto University in September 2014. One of the most important part of their intensive two-year programme is the internship that they do in a company. During this 5-6 month period starting in January they write their thesis, normally based on the work they do as an intern.

"I would love to have an industrial internship that is based on the courses that I have taken in Aalto this year, as they’re all so very interesting and challenging. Areas like Multimedia programming and working on hardware related projects excite me the most. But of course, I am open to many more possibilities", said student Vaishnavi Ganesh.

Video pitches and matchmaking events help the students

Finding a suitable position can be very time consuming so the students started the process first thing on their second study week. They practiced and video recorded a one-minute pitch on their competences and interest areas. The videos are online in the TalentMatch recruitment portal that is used by more than 100 companies in Finland. On 16th of September a matchmaking event took place at the Helsinki Co-location Centre where big companies like Nokia and lots of small start-ups came to meet with the students. There will also be other recruitment events during the autumn.

"I think it is a good thing how TalentMatch is already pushing us even though the semester has just started. The video pitches and the matchmaking event put me in the state of mind that I should already be looking actively for an internship and that nothing will happen unless I do it myself. I met a couple of interesting people at the matchmaking event that I am going to contact again regarding potential internships", commented student Ásgeir Bjarnason.

"Retention and attraction of international talent should be on the highest of agendas in Finland: for companies and for public sector. The key mission for TalentMatch is to provide an opportunity for the valuable assets we have in people who have come to Finland for study, work or family reasons to show their potential", explains Melissa Arni-Harden from TalentMatch. TalentMatch is a matchmaking and recruitment service that was launched in 2012 and has already resulted in 45 verified contracts.

"What TalentMatch is doing with EIT ICT Labs students is something very unique that I haven’t seen in my previous experiences. International students, especially students like me who have come for their second year to Aalto might need some time to establish contacts and successfully get industrial internships. The time and effort TalentMatch is putting in this initiative to help us is highly appreciated. The video pitch gave me a lot of self-confidence and it was like a reassurance of my own talents. By talking it out loud in the video, my thoughts became clearer inside my head about what I wanted", explained Vaishnavi Ganesh.